Multiple roller levellers for metal strip



J1me 1957 w. D. SHIELDS MULTIPLE ROLLER LEVELLERS FOR METAL STRIP Filed Aug. 19, 1953 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 m A HH INVENTOR. 1.

W. D. SHIELDS MULTIPLE ROLLER LEVELLERS FOR METAL STRIP Filed Aug. 19, 1955 June 25, 1957 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

United States Patent MULTIPLE ROLLER LEVELLERS FOR METAL STRIP William D. Shields, Sewickley, Pa., assignor to Voss Engineering Company, Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation of Pennsylvania Application August 19, 1953, Serial No. 375,258

1 Claim. (Cl. 153-2) This invention relates to new and useful improvements in roller levellers for use in straightening sheet metal strips and the like and it is among the objects thereof to provide a novel combination of roller levellers with a payofi reel from which a single sheet of metal is supplied to a slitting machine and a take-up reel on which a plurality of strips are coiled in edge to edge contact.

The invention will become more apparent from a consideration of the accompanying drawings constituting a part hereof in which like reference characters designate like parts and in which Fig. l is a side elevational view of a roller leveller;

Fig. 2 an end elevational view thereof partially in cross section;

Fig. 3 a rear elevational view of an assembly of a plurality of roller levellers taken along the line 3--3 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 4 a side elevational view of a plurality of roller levellers, a pay-off and take-up reel, a slitting machine and a looping pit assembled in accordance with the objects of the invention; and

Fig. 5 is a top plan view of Fig. 4.

With reference to Fig. 4 of the drawing, the numeral 1 designates a pay-off reel on which a coil of sheet metal is mounted, the sheet having previously been formed by cold rolling to finished size with a suitable surface finish. The numeral 2 designates a slitting machine having a table 3 and guide rolls 4 and 5, the slitting rolls being designated by the numerals 6 and 7. In this machine the sheet which is designated by the numeral 1a is slit into a plurality of strips 1b, there being 4 shown in Fig. 5. These strips remain in edge to edge relation as shown by dash lines in Fig. 3 and pass downwardly into a looping pit generally designated by the numeral 8, the looping pit being provided with guide rolls 9 as shown in Fig. 4. Passing upwardly from the looping pit 8 each strip passes over a guide roll 10 to a roller leveller 11, which for clarity are designated 11, 11a, 11b, and 110. The guide rollers being correspondingly designated by the numerals 10, 10a, and 10b, roller 100 not being visible in either Figs. 4 and 5 of the drawings but having the same relation to the roller leveller 110 as the guide rolls 10 to 11, etc. The numerals 12, 12a and 12b designate guide rolls for the strips passing to a take-up reel designated by the numeral 13 which is provided with a suitable drive not shown. Fig. 3 shows the spacing of the roller levellers that are vertically staggered as shown in Fig. 4, and all of these roller levellers are individually adjustable for levelling by means of the roll tilt lever 21. As shown in Fig. 2 lever 21 is connected to shaft 16 which rotates an eccentric 17 that adjusts bottom yoke 22 and associated levelling rolls 20 through saddle piece 18. This adjustment controls the pass between rollers designated by numeral 20 which are top and bottom levelling rolls through which the strips 1b pass for the straightening operation after they have been delivered by the slitting machine 2. The hand wheel 15 is connected by level gears to wedge 23 which causes bottom yoke 22 to lift or drop to suit thickness of strips 111 passing through the levelling rolls and is individually operated for each leveller. The construction of the roller leveller itself is not a part of the present invention and need not be further described.

In the operation of the above-described mechanism, the sheet metal strip 1a is uncoiled from the pay-off reel 1 and delivered to the slitting machine 2 where it passes between the rolls 6 and 7 and is slit to make a plurality of strips 1b. The strips pass downward into the looping pit 8 which is provided to take up any difference in the speed of the pay-oft reel and slitting machine and thetake-up reel or roller levellers as the case may be.

From the looping pit the strips 1b pass over guide rolls 10, 10a, 10b and 10c to the roller levellers 11, 11a, 11b and which are staggered vertically as shown in Fig. 3 and spaced laterally to maintain edge to edge alignment of the several strips so that there is no possibility of distorting the strip as it passes from the slitting machine 2. After passing through the roller levellers the strips are guided by rollers 12, 12a, 12b and 120, the latter not being shown, to maintain the same edge to edge alignment in passing to the take-up reel 13 where they are re-coiled in the manner shown in Fig. 5.

By means of the above described arrangement of the roller levellers to the pay-off and take-up reels and slitting machine, wide sheets of finished sheet steel or other metals may be rapidly slitted and recoiled without causing any distortion or tearing of the strip and by aligning the roller levellers in a manner to avoid the imposition of lateral strain on the strip, the process of straightening the strips in the roller levellers may be carried out in a normal manner and the finished strips re-coiled as described.

Although one embodiment of the invention has been herein illustrated and described, it will be evident to those skilled in the art that various modifications may be made in the details of construction without departing from the principles herein set forth.

I claim:

In combination with a pay oit reel and a take up reel for metal sheets of a slitting machine for slitting the sheets into multiple strips disposed between said pay off reel and take up reel, a looping pit disposed between said slitting machine and the take up reel for receiving said multiple strips, a plurality of roller levellers in the path of the strips between the looping pit and the take up reel, there being a roller leveller for each of said strips and guide means for delivering each of said strips individually to one of said roller levellers and from said roller levellers to the take up reel, said roller levellers and guide means being staggered vertically and spaced laterally to maintain edge-to-edge alignment of said strip during the slitting, levelling and gathering steps.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,490,549 Woodworth Apr. 15, 1924 1,841,824 Kruse Jan. 19, 1932 2,120,473 Sheperdson June 14, 1938 2,202,883 Yoder June 4, 1940 

